Qatar Airways Travel – Backstory

A couple of months ago my wife and I were coming up on a milestone anniversary. Although it was a momentous occasion we weren’t really planning on doing anything special. We had joked about going to the Maldives, but had never really pursued the idea or made definitive plans.

All of that changed one morning when I signed into Facebook and noticed an awe-inspiring photo of a Maldives’ surf break in my newsfeed.

image source: The Perfect Wave

The image you see above drove me to do some further research on the Maldives, how we might get there from the Caribbean, and what airlines could meet our needs.

Additionally, as this was a big anniversary and there were some long haul sections over the Atlantic, we decided that if we were really going to go to the Maldives then it would be in Business Class.

When it was time to move past the dreaming stage of traveling to the Maldives and to actually book tickets and accommodation, I started with Google Matrix Airfare Search. The Google Matrix platform allows you to see all of the airfares for the airlines that are traveling to your desired destination in a very easy to digest visual manner.

While conducting the airfare search there were three distinct airlines (including Qatar Airways) that stood out for us in terms of business class pricing and scheduling convenience.

However, around the same time that we were booking, Skytrax named Qatar Airways the number one airline in the world. From that designation, and from reading about the incredible service, the decision to book with Qatar was sealed.

Now that we were booked in Business Class on the number one airline in the world, and as someone who has traveled frequently on many airlines, my expectations greatly increased about what the experience would be like.

Needless to say, Qatar Airways was going to have to really deliver for it to meet the attentive service and luxury we envisioned.

Qatar Airways CEO – Remarkable Customer Care

After our flights were booked for the Maldives I was so excited that I decided to send a quick email to the Qatar Airways CEO, Mr. Akbar Al Baker. (Note: Out of respect for Mr. Al Baker I won’t post his exact email to me but I will paraphrase our exchange.)

In my initial email I wrote:

I’ve just purchased Business Class tickets for a very special anniversary trip for my wife and I to travel on Qatar Airways from the US to Maldives in September.

We are excited beyond measure to experience the renowned service that Qatar Air is known for around the world.

Kind regards, and I hope you are well.

That was it. Simple and to the point.

I didn’t really expect a reply, as I’m sure Mr. Al Baker is beyond busy dealing with Qatar Airways and the expansion of Doha’s Hamad International Airport.

Much to my surprise, about a day or so later I had an email in my inbox from Mr. Al Baker himself saying thanks and inquiring about our dates of travel. When I wrote back I kept it brief and sent along our dates, and here is the starting point where the remarkable customer service began.

More specifically, during this time my wife had noticed that I accidentally booked the earlier flight that Qatar Airways has (leaving the Maldives) and I mentioned it to Mr. Al Baker. By the next morning when I checked my email the Manager of his Executive Office had contacted me to get confirmation of the departing flight time that we wanted so she could make the change.

Perhaps this was a straightforward task for them and completed with a couple of computer keystrokes. But to us – the customer – it was an extremely kind and helpful act that would allow us to continue to enjoy our holiday at the Four Seasons little bit longer.

Our travel commenced on September 3rd and to say that we were beyond ecstatic would be an understatement. I had a feeling that the reality of traveling on Qatar Airways Business Class was going to far outweigh my perception and high expectations.

To be sure, after checking in at Philadelphia Airport we went to the British Airways Lounge (shared with Qatar Airways) and while sipping coffee and eating some fruit we were graced with a surprise visit from Antony, the Qatar Airways station manager. He checked in on us and made sure everything was going smoothly thus far and told us to contact him if we needed anything before we took off.

Qatar Airways – Arriving in Doha to Unexpected VIP Treatment

We began the long flight from Philadelphia to Doha, and as you would expect, the Business Class seat made it easy to relax and enjoy.

Also, the attentive service of the flight attendants and “a la carte” menu made it feel like we were in a boutique hotel/restaurant for the thirteen-hour flight.

It certainly was evident why this airline had just been named number one in the world.

Surprisingly, after such a long flight to Doha we were actually feeling refreshed upon arrival. When the doors opened to the stairs that led down to the tarmac, we were greeted by more unexpected generosity.

The CEO had arranged for us to have special “Meet and Assist” service. Meaning, while all of the other passengers boarded buses to make their way to customs and immigration, we had a private car with driver and a Qatar Airways representative waiting for us!

Once inside the vehicle we were whisked to a reserved immigration area (with refreshments and snacks) away from the hustle and crowds of passengers from the recently arrived flights. After completing customs we were then delivered by the Qatar Airways personal escort to their incredible Business Lounge in Doha.

For those of you wondering, this is not your standard flight lounge with a bowl of pretzels and a free soda. The Qatar Airways lounge in Doha has a full open bar and both a sit down restaurant, where you can order gourmet meals off of a menu, and a buffet area where you can get all kinds of items to dine on depending on the time of day you happen to be there.

Needless to say, we were completely blown away by the unexpected gesture of the meet and assist, private car transfer, and personal attention from the station managers.

Qatar Airways – Return Trip to Doha and More Unexpected VIP Treatment

Just when we thought the customer care could not get any better we were about to be surprised again.

When our fabulous stay in the Maldives was over and it was time to head home our flight from Male arrived in Doha at 10:00pm but it did not leave for Miami until 8:30am the next morning.

We had planned to grab a room at the Doha Airport hotel to spend the night. However, as we were getting off the plane Mr. Al Baker had arranged again for the Qatar Airways rep to meet us with a vehicle and to go through the private immigration area.

When we got into the car the Qatar Airways assistant informed us that they had taken the liberty of booking us a room for the evening at the Oryx Rotana hotel!

Utterly amazing.

Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar Al Baker – Thank You!

Delivering unexpected joy and happiness to customers, and treating them like humans is what develops trust and strong brand loyalty. Sadly, even though many large companies today profess to care about customer service, their actions prove that they lack empathy and can even be hostile towards customers’ needs.

Mr. Al Baker, your generosity helped to take what was a special trip to mark a special occasion and turned it into the best holiday we have ever had, and an experience that we will never forget.

In an age where many leaders at the CEO level choose to be distant and removed from their actual customers, you chose to epitomize what it means to delight and surprise by over delivering on great customer service.

A sincere thank you, Mr. Al Baker, for your attention to detail and personalization, and to all of the employees who made our Maldives trip a remarkable experience.

With respect to your hotel’s search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), do you feel overwhelmed? Unfortunately, for the beginner, when it comes to improving your hotel’s rankings it can sometimes feel as though the world is against you.

(Special note: What follows are my slides on hotel SEO / SEM and a breakdown of the talking points. During the presentation I only had 10 MINUTES to discuss a very complex subject. It should be noted that SEO / SEM have an almost infinite depth to them and this discussion barely scratches the surface and is meant to be a very basic introduction.)

Hotel SEO – How Search Engines Work

There are some 60 Trillion individual pages on the web. And when your potential guests start researching properties for their next vacation or business trip, SEARCH engines are tasked with parsing incredible amounts of information so that they return the most relevant and pertinent listings for peoples’ queries.

The graphic that you see above is the most recent information (that I could find) on the market share of various search engines that people use. If you consider the online activity of your guests, and the fact that you want them to be able to find you when researching their trip, you want to have a very good understanding of what platform your guests are using. (Note: Most likely it’s Google.)

As you can see in the graphic, as of April 2015 GOOGLE is still dominating with a little more than an 88% share of the market. Obviously a huge number, as such, the rest of this intro presentation focuses largely on Google.

Incredibly, Google handles some 40,000 searches per second or somewhere on the order of 4 billion searches per day! (Editor’s note: I found daily search stats that ranged from two billion to six billion.)

Search Engines can seem like mythical and confusing platforms for many hotel owners who might struggle to understand why their hotel’s website ranks where it does, and how they might go about gaining incremental improvement.

If you fall into this camp, you are not alone.

The question becomes then, when a potential guest searches for trip planning information, how does Google find web pages that match their query and determine the order of the search results?

Googlebot – Google has a “web crawler” that is known as “GOOGLEBOT. ” The GOOGLEBOT is constantly crawling the trillions of pages on the web to determine new and updated pages that should be added to the Index and it accomplishes this by following links from page to page to page. So you want to ensure that your website is well structured and easily crawlable.

Index – GOOGLEBOT processes each of the pages it crawls and compiles them into a massive database called the Index. After Google has crawled and indexed your site it can then appear in the Search Engine Results Page (often shortened to the acronym SERP).

Results – When it comes to the search results, Google, of course, has a very specific and highly secretive algorithm that decides which pages are shown in which order.

Organic & Paid search – Google’s results page typically shows 7 to 10 links to sites which fit best with the keywords and phrases that your potential guests are searching.

Paid search – with most all searches you might see the first few results with a little yellow ad icon or some other kind of designation. That means people have paid to rank well and the price varies depending on competition for the keyword. Paid search is the domain of Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Organic search – the other search results on the listings page are known as organic search results or non paid listings. Ranking well organically is the primary driver behind Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Hotel SEO – Keywords

When you are thinking about SEO/SEM for your hotel, a critical component to understand is the concept of keywords. Keywords and phrases are the terms that your potential guests are typing into Google when researching their trip.

Having empathy for your audience during their travel shopping and research phase can help you to better understand what your guests are searching the internet for. You should be able to answer the following questions:

Who is your target market?

What is that market looking for in a hotel?

What activities does your “ideal” guest like to do?

What are the words and phrases that those people type into the search engines to find hotels that will suit their needs?

The example graphic below show us that the more specific you can get in your understanding of your guests, the better your sales funnel is going to be.

One word phrase – one word “hotel” is going to be extremely competitive, difficult to rank for, and it’s incredibly broad.

Two to three word phrase – a few words such as, “Puerto Rico hotel”, begins to narrow your niche down a bit, but the higher converting phrases tend to get even more specific.

Longer phrase (also know as the “Longtail”) – something along the lines of “Puerto Rico hotel with yoga” really starts to capture a specific segment of the market and tend to convert better.

Another tip to keep in mind, having your primary keywords and phrases in the text throughout your website — in your description, on your pages, and in blog posts lets search engines know what your site is about! Google is good at a lot of things. But if you don’t have information on your site about what your hotel is – then it’s going to be awfully hard for search engines to know.

Hotel SEO – Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing is the promotion of websites and increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising.

In the graphic above, you can see the paid results highlighted. With most all Google searches you might see the first few results with a little yellow ad icon. That means people have paid to have their business rank well. If you create Google ads for your hotel you are charged on a cost per click basis every time a potential guest clicks the ad link. The price varies depending on competition for the keyword or phrase.

It’s important to note that the paid ads are ranked in the results by what is known as the “Quality Score“. Quality Score is determined every time your keyword matches a customer’s search. The components include the expected clickthrough rate, the ad relevance, and the landing page experience.

Hotel Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization — SEO — is the practice of increasing your rankings in the organic (non-paid) search results. SEO is a component of Search Engine Marketing, and it should be noted that more than 75% of all clicks within search results are for organic versus paid links.

When it comes to your hotel SEO and ranking better in the search results, over time it has gotten quite a bit more complex. The smaller graphic (in red) here shows the components that you had to be concerned with for SEO in 2004. According to Moz, it was pretty much links, keywords, getting crawled, and rankings and you could expect a pretty good spot in the search results.

However, now just eleven years on we have to think about design, press, localization, site speed, keywords, social, mobile and on and on…

But it’s important for you to not get overwhelmed and understand you can still be successful!

Hotel SEO – A quick example

In the example “PUERTO RICO HOTELS” was entered. The results show us that people are searching for that term about 165,000 times per month and it’s competition is “HIGH”. If you wanted to bid on that phrase in Google Adwords it might cost around $3.15.

If you run an actual Google search for “PUERTO RICO HOTELS” you can see lots of ads and competition to rank highly.

With all of the adds displaying before the organic listings, this show us that we might stand a better chance of ranking well if we drill down and get more specific about what our ideal guests are seeking.

As you can see, the search example below was for “PUERTO RICO HOTEL WITH YOGA”.

Notice, there are no ads and all of the listed results contain keyword “Yoga”! Additionally, if you see the results with the stars next to them, those hotels that have taken advantage of the SEO power of setting up a free Google+ business page. If you have not done this I highly recommend it.

Hotel SEO & SEM – Final Thoughts

Some final thoughts for you to think about as you consider your hotel’s SEO and SEM strategy. In order to be successful with hotel SEO & SEM there are a tremendous amount of components and details that you need to understand.

Specifically, some of the facets that you want to think about would include the following.

You need to have a deep understanding of your property and ideal guest.

Are you thinking about visiting Puerto Rico? Great news! Despite all the negative news, Puerto Rico tourism is still going strong!

When it comes to visitors to Puerto Rico it’s not uncommon for tourists to follow a standard itinerary. Folks might stay at a big hotel, eat in familiar restaurants, and perhaps take one excursion.

But, they never have the opportunity to experience all of the activities that the island has to offer, especially from the perspective that the locals enjoy.

As such, and with the recent deluge of negative news surrounding Puerto Rico, I decided to reach out to eleven friends and acquaintance on island with a simple question.

“What activity are you truly enjoying in Puerto Rico right now that a tourist might not usually hear about or get to experience?”

The goal was to focus on some of the many positives that exist here on island, and perhaps more importantly, to highlight the fact that each of the individuals below are all working, in their own way, to change the narrative of how people view Puerto Rico.

3. Exploring Brunch Options

“Trying new places for brunch on Sundays. There are many new options in San Juan. So far I’ve been to Mala Vida, Tostado, & John Doe’s. There is also Abracadabra (was the first to start the trend) and La Waflera in Old San Juan.”

Axel is an iOS and Ruby developer and he is the creator of the active Facebook Group Startup After Hours.

6. Jogging Around Condado Lagoon

Carlos Cobian, founder and creator of Cobian Media & the H3 Conference, lays out a slew of fun Puerto Rico tourism activities from a local perspective.

“I like jogging every morning around the Condado Lagoon, going to La Parguera or Rincon during the weekends, spending the whole Saturday with the kids at Ventana al mar (breakfast in Ben & Jerry’s, lunch Di Parma and at night Ventana al Jazz).”

7. Getting Lost on Puerto Rico’s Rural Roads

“There’s something magnificent about narrow roads surrounded by vegetation and the branches of flamboyanes reaching to the other side. The mix of red, green, yellow, blue… There’s something sublime about it. And it reminds you to enjoy the journey.” ~Joaquín

Joaquín makes Neuron Igniters which are unique drawings that will make you think and contemplate positive action!

– Walking up to El Morro after stopping at the supermarket and having a picnic. Very nice.

– Other days I bike to Condado with my beach chair on the back… and after having breakfast / brunch / lunch / then stopping at Ocean Park and dipping into the Ocean.

– Another thing I do frequently is dine at the many local eateries in Old San Juan.

10. Balneario de Carolina (Carolina Public Beach)

The next suggestion for visitors looking to get off the tourist trail comes from Manny Morales. Manny is the Founder and CEO of Grasslark.

“I just had two very enjoyable Saturdays. I actually spent the entire day (8AM – 5PM) at the Balneario de Carolina in my oldest daughter’s Beach Volleyball tournament – Festivol. I believe it runs the next couple of Saturdays till mid August. It is very well organized and the beach is very nice.” ~Manny

11. Westside Getaway

The eleventh and final recommendation comes from serial entrepreneur Ramphis Castro.

“I love the obvious ones: weekend getaway in Rincon/Aguadilla/Isabela. I like brunch at Cafe Loto in Santurce.” ~Ramphis

(Editor’s note: This post first appeared on The Startup Project which is may latest entrepreneurial endeavor to launch 12 startups in 12 months.)

Find a Web Developer

You might have the greatest idea in the world!

But if you don’t know how to code your vision might not ever see the light of day.

So, you have a couple of options:

Teach yourself to code.

Find a friend or colleague who is willing to help.

Hire a freelancer.

If you are considering hiring a freelancer, and if you don’t know how to find a web developer, then this post is for you.

Please note: The Startup Project is meant to be a learning process and an opportunity to share experiences. If you are a developer, or someone who has built a lot of products, then you might have a completely different approach. Your constructive input and advice for improving the following “Find a developer” process is appreciated.

Initial steps

Before beginning your research on freelance developers you should have a pretty good sense of what it is that you would like to build and the basic functionality that’s going to be required.

For example, is your idea like Uber, but for pet care? Or do you want to build out an on demand music platform for endurance athletes?

Your ability to clearly articulate what it is that you want created will have a direct impact on the success that you’ll have working with a freelancer.

Once you have a clear vision of your product in mind, you should familiarize yourself with the concept of creating and writing the “User Story.” User stories are part of the agile development process and they break down the overall platform idea into individual pieces of functionality. There are typically three basic components.

At this point in your process you might also want to draw some wireframes or rough mockups of what you want the user interface to look like.

My preferred method is to just start with a clean sheet of 8 x 11 paper. If you prefer doing the draft mockup online then there are numerous tools to choose from. Balsamiq, Mockflow, or Justinmind are just a few examples.

Finding a freelancer

Once you’ve given some thought to what you want to create, written user stories, and made a mockup of the interface, now it’s time to find a web developer to build your vision.

Some of the more popular sites for finding a freelancer are oDesk, Elance, and Freelancer. Because it can quickly become overwhelming you may wish to to just place a “freelancer wanted” on one of the platforms above. For the purposes of this post oDesk was used.

The first thing that you should do is type “Rails developer” in the search box.

When you have your listing of developers, I would suggest starting off by filtering the results to show only those who have a feedback rating of 4.5 – 5 stars.

You can also set the hourly rate that you have budgeted (even though I prefer to work off of a set price), the hours the developer has billed, and you can choose based on how recently they have been active.

Under “Tests” you might also want to select that the developer has taken the “Ruby on Rails” test and filter those who have scored in the top 10% – 30% and make them your top candidates.

With the field now greatly narrowed down you might like to run a “private” posting by hitting the “Contact” button on select programmers.

The good thing about making your post private is that you can make initial contact and invite developers to respond to a simple inquiry like the one below.

During your quest to find a web developer, you might find that some won’t answer and that’s great because it rules them out right away.

However, for the folks that do respond, if you find someone that you would like to work with, then send them more specifics about the functionality that you will require for your project.

If you move forward and decide to hire a developer, I strongly suggest starting off in bite-sized chunks. Most platforms today have a “Sign up”, “Sign in”, and “Sign out” feature. You might start by having your new freelancer build out this functionality first. That way you can get a feel for how they work and you can determine if you are compatible.

Also, make sure that you have a Github or Bitbucket account and have the code pushed there.

Through serendipity, my “hire a freelancer” process actually stopped here because I connected with a developer in a different way (which I will speak to in a moment) that might work for you, as well.

How I found a developer

About a year ago I was trying to learn to code so that I could build out my own products with Rails. Like most beginners, I quickly ran into an issue and realized that I needed a skilled person to help get me moving forward again.

Around the same I heard about a new startup called “Hackhands.” Their mission is to help people (for a fee) “Instantly connect with a qualified programming expert.”

The programming expert that I paired with was extremely knowledgeable, communicated effectively, and was able to solve numerous programming problems for me.

When I decide to pursue The Startup Project I remembered the Hackhands developer that I had worked with stating that they were going to open up a freelance Rails development practice. So, I sent an initial email with what I wanted to have built.

When I got the response I was excited to see that they were in fact doing Rails development, but unfortunately, their price was way beyond my “bootstrap” budget.

However, before moving on (and hiring someone off of oDesk) I sent a follow up email with what I could afford. To my surprise, the response was positive and I typed up a simple RFP and we began moving forward.

If you are hoping to find a web developer to create your entrepreneurial vision, or if you are a seasoned freelancer, please feel free to provide your thoughts on how the process can work out best for all parties. You can offer your insight on Facebook, LinkedIn, or even Twitter @mark_hayward.

Do you find yourself lacking the time to come up with creative ideas for new content and blog posts? Here are 52 ideas to help get you through the rest of the year.

Fact: We all have the ability to be publishing companies now.

However, as business owners sometimes it can feel as though we’re just too busy to do anything else other than keeping customers and employees happy. Yet, now more than ever, it’s critical to be creating content that helps you reach potential clients.

Most businesses are beginning to realize that the power of blogging is NOT achieved by publishing content that promotes the hard sell of products and services. But rather, the most effective business blog post ideas are centered on helping to connect you and your potential & existing customers on a more human level that builds trust and (hopefully) leads to increased sales.

Blog Post Ideas

During the next year if you find yourself getting stuck creatively, here are 52 content and blog post ideas for you.

Answer three of the most commonly asked questions that customers have about your service or product.

Did you come from a completely different field (like a heart surgeon) to pursue a business passion (like opening a bakery)? What was the journey like?

A day in the life post. What is a typical day, a week, or even a month like at your business?

Who are your customers? Conduct a brief interview with some customers or clients. (Have you seen the success of Humans of New York?!)

What have you done in your life that makes you unique, and how does that translate over to your business and serving customers?

What are the tools of your trade? For example, are you using a piece of software that makes your day easier and perhaps it could help your customers?

Most business owners did not get where they are at on their own — who has inspired or mentored you?

Why did you choose your business location? (Or if your business is online what are some of your favorite spots to work from?)

Have you done something astronomical, such as completing the Hawaii Ironman or climbing Mount Everest? Your clients would love to hear about it…

What allowed you to move beyond fear and pursue business ownership?

How is the reality of running a business different from what you expected?

Interview an industry leader in your business niche.

Do a photo walking tour of your neighborhood.

How did you manage to start your business? (You might focus on practical points such as securing financing, required permits, and so on.)

What causes do you care about? How has your business supported the community or your favorite charity

Where have you visited in your travels? How are the places different?

Do you sell a product (or deliver a service) that’s technically complicated? Boil down a critical but difficult-to understand concept in a resource post.

Define your customer service philosophy in a short manifesto. (Even better if you include real life examples that display your remarkable customer care.)

Conduct a photo or video walking tour of your business.

Highlight the top five or ten blogs in your industry.

How is your business or service conducted in other cultures? For example, are there any differences between carpet cleaners (or whatever your venture is) in New York City and London?

What are the challenges you face on a daily basis?

Write a humorous post about something that occurred at your business. (Remember to change names to protect the innocent.)

Create a compelling challenge for a free giveaway.

Highlight a new product or service that’s proving helpful to customers.

A simple, heartfelt post, on why you love doing what you do.

Highlight some monthly specials, promotions, or clearance items. (Note: use this type of post sparingly!)

Draft a helpful post or tutorial specifically to help others in your industry.

Define the origins and shipping procedure of your product. How did that coffee get to your café? Where is it grown?

Explain the requirements of entry into your line of business. What type of training is required to be a web designer? Do you need certain skills to run a hotel?

What are the top ten mistakes you’ve made while running your venture?

What is your personal history and what are your qualifications?

Why are you located where you are?

What are ten must-have items in your business?

Provide the most convenient routes to get to your business and perhaps list any unique or historic landmarks around you.

Highlight a special customer.

Feature any eco/enviro-friendly products or infrastructure that you have (such as solar panels, or low-flow, high-volume shower heads).

Comparison post – e.g., if you own a restaurant, what’s the most popular dish like when it’s prepared the standard way and/or for someone who is gluten intolerant? Or why might customers want one technology over another?

Describe any improvements or upgrades you have made to your business.

Create a tutorial post specific to your industry, which might be a trivial task for you but could really help the readers (it might be programming an iPhone, or how to make the perfect pizza crust).

What do you do during your time off?

Does your family have a history in the business? For example, was your shoe store, marketing firm, or bike shop started by your grandfather?

Post a survey seeking input from your customers about how you can improve their customer experience.

Write a personal post and invite your customers to comment or provide their thoughts.

Do a real-life product review where you use one of your services or business items for a week and report back on your findings.

Highlight the businesses around you that you support.

Thank every single person who has helped you along your way.

Have an employee do a written or visual diary of what their day is like.

Respond to a critic head-on. Don’t be confrontational, but explain your point of view in a professional manner. For example, if you’ve had a customer service issue, explain what you are doing to remedy the situation.

Surprise an unsuspecting customer/client/guest with an amazing experience — like a gift certificate for a fine meal, a massage, or a shopping spree — and write about the lucky winner and how you went about choosing who would receive the gift.

Ask your customers to take some photos or video of your business and post them. (Making sure to give credit to the photographers.)

If you made it this far, write a year in review post highlighting your successes, failures, and plans for the future.

Whether you post once a month, once a week, or once a day hopefully you found this “content cushion” of blog post ideas helpful! If you have further thoughts or input, I’d love to connect with you on Twitter @mark_hayward or LinkedIn.

Are you thinking about packing up and working remotely from an overseas location? Do you long to have your office on the beach in the Caribbean or perhaps on a hillside in the Swiss Alps?

Having spent a good portion of the past eighteen years working remotely and internationally in places like Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tortola and Puerto Rico, I wholeheartedly support the pursuit of the remote worker dream.

With the advent of remarkable workspaces like Piloto 151 and emerging platforms like Teleport , there really is no reason (for most of us!) to report to the same work office every day.

However, if you have not lived internationally or worked from overseas before, I thought that I would provide you with some details that you might want to think about.

Ten Critical Tips for Working Remotely

1. Are you ready for challenges that come with living in a foreign countryLiving some place is much different than just visiting for a week on a yearly vacation. This might sound completely obvious and like common sense, but during my time overseas I’ve seen many folks pack up all of their personal belongings and move 5000 miles away from home only to arrive at a destination and realize a week later that they can’t stand living there.

If you can afford to do so, a pre-move visit is always encouraged and could help you to avoid a potentially costly mistake.

2. Moving is stressful.Relocating to another city within your own country is difficult enough. In fact, stress wise, moving typically ranks as one of the most difficult life changes an individual (or family) can make. When you decide to become a global nomad and move overseas you can multiply the stress factor on a scale of magnitudes—language barriers, new customs, and etc.

Part of the allure of living overseas can be the challenges that one might expect to face. However, you need to really consider if you are ready for the language difficulties, cultural barriers, and bureaucratic red tape that can that can be associated with an overseas move.

3. Are you ready to be away from family and friends (support network)Working remotely seems glamorous. Certainly tools like Skype, Google+, and Facebook make it easy to keep in touch on an almost daily basis. But, homesickness and being away from family and friends around holidays and special occasions, and during serious illness, can quickly tarnish beachside living or skiing every morning.

Before packing your bags check to see if there is an existing expat or remote worker community to help act as your surrogate support network.

4. What are the immigration policies at your desired destination?Many countries require you to show proof of an onward ticket before they will even allow you to enter. You need to find out:

How long can you legally reside in the country you wish to work from? (Is it thirty days, three months or one year?)

If you need to renew your immigration status is it as easy as crossing the border for twenty-four hours and coming back in again? Or, do you have to go back to your home of record?

Are there any passport stamp fees associated with an extended stay?

I have a good friend who overstayed his visa in one of the countries where I was working and he wound up spending eight months in the local prison. (Hint: Watch the movie Midnight Express to get an idea of what you might be in for if you decide to overstay your welcome.)

5. Can you legally run a business or work online at your chosen destinationWill you be required to get a work permit if you want to work remotely? Even if you are running an Internet based business, some countries do not want you working within their borders. Other countries will make you fully disclose the type of work you’ll be doing or the business you will be running and may require you to get a special work visa.

6. What will your tax status be?

Although you might not be working for a local company, you should check with the country’s treasury department to determine if you have to pay local taxes. Additionally, if you are a United States resident living outside of the states you will need to determine if you qualify for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.

7. Will you have access to medical coverage and medical care?Nobody likes to think about a serious medical condition arising. If you’re heading overseas and currently have insurance you will need to find out if the hospitals and clinics in your new country of choice accept your policy. In the event that they don’t, try to find out if you can you get an international travel add-on from your existing insurer or purchase supplemental expat insurance.

Once you feel secure with your insurance situation, you might want to find out what medical care is care like at the destination you are heading to. Consider the following, do you have a particular medical condition that requires special treatment or medicine? Can you get the help you need at your new location? Additionally, discern if there are any serious health concerns such as malaria or typhoid and look into proper prophylaxis and immunizations.

8. How is the cost of living?In your home city you might be so familiar with the prices for everyday goods that you don’t necessarily pay attention to the standard living costs.

For your new remote working location you may wish to research what can you expect to pay for every day essentials like rent, bread and eggs, a car, gas, and beer. Moreover, you might be accustomed to very low prices for water and electric utilities. Other costs to consider would be the price for mailing and shipping items.

9. Can you legally purchase property?This question is for the hardcore, expat/remote worker, but if you are going to be in a country for any length of time it certainly is one worth considering for living or investment purposes. Although, it is important to remember three things:

Property ownership does not necessarily make you a resident.

In some cases countries will restrict the purchase of property by foreigners.

Always do your due diligence to check for clear title and hire local legal counsel.

For example, in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) the government requires that you apply for what’s called a, “Non-Belonger Landholding License.” The whole process can take well over a year, and even if you are successful at obtaining the license, you are not allowed to reside there while waiting for it. Once you do have it, you are only allowed to live in the BVI for six months out of the year.

If purchasing a home or property is part of your overseas remote working dream, then check the real estate laws carefully.

10. Everything else!If you made it passed all of the items above then you can actually begin to think about your in-country work needs such as, living arrangement, office space, and internet access.

Final thought, before you head off and begin working remotely, do your research and you’ll make out just fine!

(Editor’s note: This post initially appeared as a guest post on Daniel Craig’s Reknown blog)

Do you want to make a commitment to content marketing for your hotel as part of your online strategy but are unsure where to begin? Or perhaps you struggle to maintain consistency with your posting schedule?

As a former hotel owner I truly comprehend the overwhelming feeling caused by the seemingly endless social media options available today. Trying to make sense of it all can feel as though you are standing on the edge of a cliff and staring down into a never-ending abyss.

“Content marketing” has unquestionably been the preeminent buzzword in marketing for a few years now, and for good reason. When done right, it can help you to build credibility and trust among your clients and even brand you as an “expert” for your particular destination or hospitality business niche.

For this post I’m assuming you have some type of online platform to post your content to: a blog, Facebook, YouTube, etc. However, if your blog is sitting dormant or your Facebook feed is “collecting dust,” perhaps you need a little push to get going again. My goal by the end of the article is to inspire you to either start producing content or to resume your efforts.

Content Marketing for Hotels

What is content marketing?Whether you are responsible for promoting a destination, are the GM of a well-known brand, or own a small B&B, one thing is certain: in today’s online world we all have the power to be publishing companies and public relations firms.

In its simplest form, content marketing can be thought of as information and communication materials that you create (in text format, video, photos, etc.) that are helpful, enlightening and even entertaining for your customers.

Content marketing for your hotel is intended to create value for your customers by answering questions or by helping to solve their pain points. Frequently it comes in the form of customer stories, anecdotes that share your backstory, insider tips, informational videos and engaging photos. If your efforts are successful, your clientele will actively seek you out online,

In direct juxtaposition to traditional advertising, whereby businesses simply broadcast a pushy sales message and do not provide any inherent value, a well thought-out and successfully implemented content strategy will allow you to gain the attention of customers, develop trust and build business connections.

This is a great sample post to get you thinking about articles that you could be creating. Undoubtedly, the hotel is providing beneficial information for their guests and you don’t get that “sales pitch” feeling. In fact, the only mention of the Distrikt comes in the fifth listing where they let you know that the Landmark Tavern is close to them.

Consider the following: if your website is analogous to the front door of your business, then your content posting platforms—blog, Facebook, etc.—are similar to your comfortable lobby area where stories are told, ideas are shared, questions are answered and trust is earned.

Three Content Marketing Quick Start Best PracticesNow let’s look at some best practices to help you to build an enhanced connection with your guests, and ultimately to increase sales and bookings.

1. Know who your ideal customer is
Your content marketing efforts are intended to create value for your customers by educating them and helping them in their decision making process. If you don’t have a solid understanding of who your ideal guest is, then it’s going to be difficult to produce helpful information. (Note: if you have different customers depending on the season or time of year you should keep that in mind and adjust your work accordingly.)

As an example, when I owned my hotel, our ideal guest was an active traveler who liked adventure. Typically, guests were in their twenties to late forties and liked activities such as hiking, snorkeling and bird watching. Many were also interested in experiencing the local culture and trying non-touristy restaurants and out of the way spots.

To help get you going, ask yourself:

What do my customers like to do?

What are the most frequently asked questions from my guests?

What is the most impactful communication I can generate to begin to develop a relationship with clientele who find me online?

Many potential customers will simply mute out overly promotional messaging that screams, “My business/destination is great!” However, if you educate your clientele, or perhaps even entertain them, you will not only grab their attention but may compel them to share your content, thereby exposing you to a whole new network.

2. Build a backlog of content ideas
If you’re ever at a loss as to what to post next, you’ll find my next quick start best practice helpful: build a backlog of ideas that you can refer back to.

Mind mapping is an exceptional technique for coming up with a steady stream of content ideas. The mind mapping method utilizes the creation of a diagram commonly referenced around one key point. For a tourism business or hotel, a mind map could be developed around a topic that might include your destination, your business niche or popular activities.

During my time owning a hotel I frequently would do this exercise so that I could come up with twenty to thirty posting ideas. A mind map for content ideas for my current location, Rincon, Puerto Rico, would look like this:

As you can see, I began by jotting down the name of the destination and then came up with numerous topics and sub-topics that could each be turned into a helpful post for visitors. What would a mind map look like for your destination?

3. Develop a posting schedule
As a hospitality or tourism professional you most certainly have a tremendous amount of daily responsibilities. “Finding the time” seems to be the number one obstacle to developing a content plan and sticking to it.

Having the discipline to consistently create and post quality content requires real focus and a long-term commitment. Your third quick start best practice is to develop an editorial calendar based on how often you think you can post.

Much like exercise, if you do not schedule time to fit your online work into your day, you won’t do it. However, if you can make it a regularly scheduled habit, then you are more likely to stick with it and be successful.

Certainly, hotel staff would never say that they do not have time to check in a guest or to clean rooms. Your online efforts need to be weighted with equal importance or they will always get pushed to the side.

A special quick start content marketing bonusHere are four types of posts to use while developing your strategy.

List post – people like content that is easily digestible. One of the most popular forms of online posting is what’s known as a “list post.” A sample list for you might include: “Top Five Activities,” “Three Restaurants You Must Experience,” or “Four Great Spots for a Family.” Include your destination name in the title for SEO purposes.

“How to” post – potential customers want answers to questions about your business and destination. The “how to” post provides a convenient way to develop information that is valuable to your guests. Sample titles might include, “How to Experience (Your Destination) Like a Local” or “How to Spend a Long Weekend at (Your Location).”

Customer/guest interview post – whether in text or video format, guest interviews provide a powerful way for you to have an additional touch point with your clientele. They provide a “real” customer experience for those researching your venture online.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specific post – Google offers a very handy and freeKeyword Planner tool. When you type a phrase into the tool, e.g., “Florida beaches”, it provides a list of the average monthly search volume and competition for the keywords. From this information you can create targeted SEO content/posts that provide answers to questions your customers are actively searching for online.

Regardless of the type of content you develop, be sure to optimize it for search by including your destination, business name, activity, tags and hashtags – whichever are appropriate to the platform you are publishing to.

The most powerful aspect of content marketing for hotels is that it allows you to answer the simple question, “How can I best serve my customers?” In order to take advantage of the boundless possibilities that content marketing can provide, you must be willing to put in real energy, real effort and real commitment.

Always remember, the number one rule is it’s not about you. If you start your content from a place of empathy, transparency and an unbridled willingness to be helpful, then you can’t go wrong.

Puerto Rico has tremendous year round weather!

Would you rather be freezing, working and coding in NYC or Boston all winter long? Or would you like a respite from the frostbite on the sunny beaches of Puerto Rico?

Imagine, you can get on a plane during a blizzard, wearing your ushanka, and about three and half hours later step out into blazing sunshine in shorts and flip-flops.

(Note: For those that might not know, “code/coding,” as it’s used here is meant to be analogous to computer programming/hacking, creating apps, and developing online platforms for business and money making purposes.)

But on the flipside, Puerto Rico was just voted “Best Caribbean Island” by the readers of USA Today! (How’s that for irony?)

It’s easy to see why it was voted number one! Puerto Rico has something for everybody with sandy beaches, the rainforest, world-class resorts, intimate Inns, great food, impressive culture, friendly people, and the list goes on and on.

While there is, sadly, an undeniable “brain drain” happening in Puerto Rico, what about the “brain rush?” Specifically, those skilled and entrepreneurial minded travelers who come to the island for a week, ten days, or even for a month.

How do we connect them, promote collaboration, and knowledge give-and-take, while they’re in Puerto Rico?

You might be thinking, “How does the Puerto Rico Tourism fit into all this?”

To which I would answer, it all starts with a Tweet. You see, my former Launch Academy Coding Bootcamp cohort-mate, Zach Young, and I were having a Twitter conversation and he mentioned that he “keeps seeing photos posted of Puerto Rico” and stated, “I need to get out there!”

Then the “light bulb” went off and I sent the following Tweet to Puerto Rico Tourism Company as a way to start the discussion and to have them think about becoming the conduit between travelers and locals.

The idea behind – (choose your name) “Code & Stay,” or “Hack & Surf,” or “Collaboration in Paradise” – packages would be to create even more avenues for information exchange, technical inspiration, and creative growth here in Puerto Rico.

Fact: Talented individuals (like Baris at Google) are traveling to Puerto Rico for vacation. However, unlike Baris, many visitors might not know how to connect or get involved with the entrepreneurial community here who are working to launch something brilliant and world changing.

That’s where “Code & Stay” packages come in. For a bit of vacation time mentoring entrepreneurs, giving presentations, or pair programming (or live coding) visitors to Puerto Rico — who are in the entrepreneurial and tech world — could get packages with reduced rates, guaranteed upgrades, or other booking incentives.

How does this benefit the traveler, tourism, and the local entrepreneurs?

In order to be successful, all good ideas must solve a problem or provide some type of benefit(s). The following are just a few of the possible, tangible outcomes:

The visitor – Besides coming to an amazing destination, they would get a real cultural experience and have the opportunity to interact with some of the brightest and most talented folks in Puerto Rico. That’s not even mentioning (hopefully) discounted travel and a place to work like Piloto 151.

Most importantly, I believe that the traveler stands to share their knowledge, while at the same time, learning a lot and getting educated about the “Best Caribbean Island.” In the grandest of outcomes, maybe they come back and invest or create jobs here.

The Puerto Rico tech & entrepreneurial community – Certainly, with social media, the barriers of global communication have been largely dissolved. However, collaborating with someone in person on a business idea, or hearing an outside perspective on entrepreneurship, or working to solve a particularly tricky coding problem, has intrinsic value.

Even though there are fantastic tech and entrepreneurial meetups on island, sometimes it can feel as though you are working in a vacuum. Outside connection and perspective can sometimes be the antidote and solution to pushing a creative idea further.

Puerto Rico tourism – As a former hotel owner here in Puerto Rico I can tell you that these early adopters of technology and entrepreneurs are exactly the type of guest that we wanted staying with us. They are the bloggers, the Twitter power users, and addicts of Instagram who will help to grow a hotels digital presence by writing, Tweeting, and posting about the island, their interactions with the creative community, and the properties they’re staying at.

With respect to global tourism, creating a “Code & Stay” promotion is an innovative approach to marketing the island as a destination and no other location has such a program.

In closing, the above post is meant to just get the initial idea out to the greater world and to create a discussion amongst stakeholders like the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, Startups of Puerto Rico, and travelers to the island.

Certainly, more thought, dialogue, and “packaging” needs to go into the “Stay and Code” concept. Please offer your input and thoughts below on how you might structure this idea for success or share on Twitter.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the South Pacific — living in Samoa for a bunch of years and traveling through Hawaii — and figured I would investigate further to see what the Grand Wailea Resort was currently doing as an online strategy to better connect and interact with potential guests (and ultimately to increase bookings).

When I visited the Grand Wailea Resort website I quickly noticed that they had all of the requisite links to various social sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) and noted (at the time of writing this article) they had not been too active on any of the various platforms. In order to serve the hotel best, I thought I would offer them three things I would do immediately if I was their Digital Marketing Manager.

(Note: none of my suggestions are meant as criticism, on the contrary, I want the Grand Wailea to succeed in their digital strategy and to help their guests have an amazing experience!)

1. Conduct a thorough reputation audit

The Grand Wailea is part of the Waldorf Astoria brand, which offers, “5 star luxury travel to top destinations.” Additionally, in one of their YouTube promo videos, the Grand Wailea exclaims that they “offer unsurpassed luxury.” Which is great, and is exactly the perception and expectation I conjure up in my mind when I envision this iconic property. However, after a quick check of TripAdvisor to see what past guests have had to say about the property, there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between what’s being sold/offered and what is actually meeting guests upon arrival. To be clear: the Grand Wailea has great reviews but from the one star all the way to the five star an overriding theme was “the rooms are getting tired.”

Below you will notice a four star review (awesome), and even though they had “no complaints” if you read the last line this Senior Reviewer even mentions that “the rooms are outdated.”

I’m not sure if the Gran Wailea has a remodeling project in the works, or what their plans are. However, if they want continued, long-term success with the “hotel review feedback loop” then I would suggest more transparency, and perhaps even a rebranding to state that the rooms are “classically elegant,” or something along those lines to set expectations early. In all honesty, it does not matter who your digital director is, if guests feel like they’ve been duped on the quality of the rooms, then negative reviews and comments will continue.

It’s important to note that travelers have always had a voice. Social sites like TripAdvisor, Facebook, and Twitter just allow guests the opportunity to magnify how many people can hear their opinion. Previously, it was perhaps ten friends and now (with extended networks and friends of friends) they might be telling ten thousand people or a million about their experience at your hotel.

2. Create remarkable content

The second thing I would do as Manager of Digital Marketing for the Grand Wailea Resort would be to use a keyword tool, such as Google’s Keyword Planner, to discern what potential guests are searching for online when it comes to Maui. From the information provided by the Keyword tool, and via a thorough understanding of the Grand Wailea’s guest demographic, I would develop an editorial calendar of blog, Facebook, and YouTube content that was aimed at helping visitors with useful information. (Note: the graphic below shows the results for a keyword search using the phrase “Maui family activities.”)

As noted in the introduction above, the Grand Wailea’s website lists all of their relevant social media accounts, but they are not updated all that frequently. Some simple posts that I would suggest they create would be “5 Great Beaches for Kids,” “How to Tour Maui with Children Like a Local,” and “10 Rainy Day Activities the Whole Family Can Enjoy.” Potential guests want to interact, engage, and feel connected to brands via their online presence and if social media accounts are just “collecting dust” then the Grand Wailea Resort is probably losing business.

3. Become a social media concierge

The third thing I would do as the Grand Wailea’s Manager of Digital Marketing would be to start using social media channels as an extension of the concierge desk. The best and most effective way to do this is to join online conversations in a non-spammy way. Two simple ways to be incredibly helpful to potential guests would be to answer questions in a destination forum like TripAdvisor’s Maui discussion board and to use Twitter’s simple search tool to communicate with travelers that need assistance.

As you can see from the screengrab below, the TripAdvisor Maui destination forum has over 46,000 discussion topics, questions, and inquiries. The Grand Wailea Resort’s Director of Digital Marketing should be replying to many of the questions as a way to build trust and to build brand recognition.

Currently, though, their Twitter account does not appear to be updated regularly and the majority of their Tweets are about the hotel itself. This is a common mistake made by tourism businesses and the great thing is that it’s easily remedied by following the rule whereby you are helpful 80% of the time and only promote yourself in 20% of your interactions.

For any hotel out there, simply having social media accounts does not increase business, and if you are struggling with digital marketing I suggest you get started by looking at the 21 Day Hospitality Social Media Challenge. Building trust, being helpful, and providing complete transparency wins with guests every time.

Obviously there is still a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done by the Grand Wailea Resort. The three suggestions mentioned here are meant to be part of an initial digital strategy that can be seamlessly implemented by them today.

I wish the Grand Wailea tremendous success in 2014 and with their search for a capable Digital Marketing Director. (Note to Grand Wailea Resort: If you would like to discuss a more in depth comprehensive digital strategy there’s a good chance I’m going to be in Hawaii in February and feel free to connect with me on Twitter @mark_hayward or via email.)

I’ve written a lot over the past three weeks on tools, strategies, and best practices to help you, the hospitality professional, get a better handle on social media for your hotel.

For today’s final day — and for those that did not complete the whole challenge — I will give you the abridged version by providing 21 actionable tasks that you can do RIGHT NOW to improve the social media presence of your hotel or hospitality business.

Hotel Social Media for You

Without further ado, here are your hotel social media daily goals for the next three weeks.